


Sweep the Skies

by Cyane



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst, Grief, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Character Death, Short One Shot, Torture, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-22 04:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7420111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyane/pseuds/Cyane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laxus doesn't come back to the guild until it's too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweep the Skies

**Author's Note:**

> Basically I have too many drafts and I took a trip back to Sweden so I just really needed to post.

Laxus stood in the rain for hours, looking at the gravestone that stood wearily in front of him.

_Freed Justine, X764-X785_

Freed was dead. He died a year after Laxus had left the guild, when he went on a rather challenging mission and was publicly executed after being captured, tortured, and refusing to give out guild secrets. His head was cut off in front of the entire Raijinshuu team, and the small town where the job was. 

What remained of the Raijinshuu carried back what was left of him. 

Laxus would never get to talk to him again.

_"What're you all standing around for? I'm back!" Laxus called, grin falling as he saw the horrified looks coming from the rest of the guild. He normally would've assumed they were just terrified to see him again, but Bix and Ever looked just as anguished._

_"What's wrong...?" He asked, suddenly very puzzled. He expected Bix, Ever, and Freed to be jumping and fawning all over him as soon as he set foot inside. Speaking of which... where was Freed?_

_Evergreen suddenly burst into tears and ran over, falling into Laxus' hug and sobbing into his shoulder. Bickslow came over a bit slower, being uncharacteristically quiet. "What's wrong, guys? Where's Freed?"_

_At the name Bix let out a choking noise and sounded a bit green, and wrapped an arm around Ever. "H-he... uh, Laxus... he..."_

_"He's gone!" Ever screamed, grasping onto Bickslow and breaking down completely. "He died bravely! He saved us all!"_

Laxus' entire world had fallen apart when he heard the words. 

After two weeks of hardly talking, tears, and visiting the grave, Laxus finally asked them how it happened. Ever left the room immediately, not wanting to relive the traumatizing experience.

_"Baby, are you sure-"_

_"I'm sure, Bix."_

_Bickslow took a deep breath and sat Laxus down at the table. "Alright. It was a mission up north. It wasn't supposed to be easy, but even still, we were all a bit careless; we had just completed an S-Rank job, so we were getting sorta... prideful, I s'pose. But the area we were in, they didn't like magic or wizards. They-... they caught Freed. Next time we saw him, he was tied to a stake during a town gathering..."_

_Horrified at the news, Laxus slammed a fist down on the table before making himself relax. "You saw him?" He finally choked out. Bickslow nodded carefully. "Yeah- he, um... they tortured him. That was obvious. He wasn't doing well, like, at all. Bleeding out- god- his stomach was practically- ah- out of his chest,and his h-hair wasn't even green, it was coated red..."_

_After a moment, Bix continued. "He saw us, in the crowd. There was this big fence, surrounding him, sorta like the rune walls he used to write, and we couldn't get through. But he saw us, and he just said, 'Make sure Laxus comes back._ '" 

And now all Laxus could do was stand in front of a stone slab and look at his friend- his best friend, his ally, his confidant, his teammate- look at his dead body that was buried six feet under.

He never really got to say goodbye to Freed. He would never hear his voice again, or see his green hair flash.

Freed had loved his hair. He was rather shy and awkward and humble, but his hair was something he loved. Obviously he would never let it become a weakness; once the Thunder Legion had a job and their enemy had grabbed onto Freed's hair and _pulled_ , and Freed didn't even hesitate to whip out his rapier and slice it off near the scalp.

It had taken only a month or two to regrow into its former glory. 

But he loved his hair. Their team didn't often talk about their pasts, especially Freed, but they all had a suspicion that it had something to do with his family from long ago.

Lots of the time Freed would braid it. Bix teased him about becoming a hair stylist like Lucy's celestial spirit Cancer, but Freed only grinned. 

So when Bix told him that in his last moments alive, his hair was completely drenched in his own bloody red, Laxus couldn't help but feel murderous.

At least it was clean now, again- the same dazzling emerald, if by a bit duller. 

Things seemed to be duller when the said person was dead.

Freed was a very strong wizard- s-class strong, no doubt- and Laxus would never get to see that again. He had withstood torture more than once, and in the face of death only fought harder. 

He saved Laxus' life so many times...

(Just thinking about the Fantasia Parade and the entire shitfest that had gone down sent shivers down Laxus' spine. Freed had followed him reluctantly, but loyally, and Laxus had nearly killed him at a single hint of 'maybe we shouldn't do this'. Later Mira had sadly talked about their fight, and she had told Laxus how Freed believed at the time, that the only family he had left was Laxus. It rang in his ears, made his stomach twist uncomfortably. How had Freed... Lived like that?)

(He hadn't.)

Breaking into silent, horrible tears, Laxus knelt down on the grave, and slowly out out a bouquet of flowers among the rest. They were roses, and they were nearly completely green. 

The insides were a dazzling shade of gold.

(As he set them down, the rain continued but the clouds opened and thousand of millions of stars shone down on his weeping form. One stood brighter than the rest.) 

Curse Freed and his loyalty, his hair, his heart of gold, the way he seemed to revolve around Laxus, the way he seemed like Laxus was the world to him... when in reality, he was Laxus' world.

And now he was gone.


End file.
